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American
Society of IRS Problem Solvers - Paul
Hendrickson, President
Prior
to
engaging you and the Ethical Selling
Institute, we did a comprehensive
nation-wide evaluation of potential "sales
training" programs. Our members
pride themselves in their professionalism;
they are all about integrity and want
nothing to do with anything that would
compromise that perception in the minds of
their potential clients. To say they
were skeptical about anything to do with
"selling," would be an
understatement. I say,
unequivocally, that we found in you and
the Ethical Selling Institute the partner
we were looking for. Your
integrity-based approach resonated with
our attorneys and CPAs. They
embraced the Ethical Selling System as a
way to convert more prospects into clients
by delivering on your EthicalFactor
(trust, credibility, partnership).
Association of
Information Technology Professionals -
Martha Ludewig, Vice President (IT)
Your
concept
of ethical selling and differentiation
from the competition by building
relationships through trust, credibility
and partnership hit the mark with the AITP
audience. I found the enthusiastic
presentation and delivery of your talk to
be entertaining and captivating while in
itself demonstrating how to build
relationships with those present. I
know that you have previously presented to
AITP at the National Conference with
positive results, and I would recommend
you as a speaker and your method of
ethical selling to other individuals and
organizations.
Bitrode
Corporation - Laura Schacht, Sr. Account Manager
(Industry)
I
found the program to be full of fantastic
information, selling techniques, and self
discovery. Not only did I gain
insights on how to utilize the
differentiators of our products, but I
learned a completely different paradigm on
closing that never compromises my
integrity. I believe this program
will help anyone - in any industry -
become more effective in sales, to build
better relationships, and dramatically
improve their business development
opportunities.
Blackwell Sanders
Peper Martin - Peter Sloan, Partner (Legal)
Your
workshop
on the ethical selling system was superb,
and it changed the way I approach
development in my law practice. Before
your seminar, my focus in networking and
business development was on all of the
things that I can do for the client.
Your workshop helped me make a subtle but
all-important shift in focus. I now
converse with potential clients with a
focus on what they want, what they fear,
what they need, rather than what I
do. This change has made my business
development efforts more satisfying and
enjoyable. I recommend you and your
system to any professional who wants to
move to the next level.
Blue Ocean
Portfolios - Jim Winkelman, Principal
(Financial)
Before
your course I more or less operated
under the notion that prospective
customers would like the features and
benefits of our service offerings and,
through our persistence, would
eventually break down and do business
with us. The themes of your
course exposed the fallacy in our
approach and showed us the optimum way
to approach and deal with
customers. Most recently I
attended the Program on Negotiation at
The Harvard Law School. Your
program on ethical selling was every
bit as valuable as this expensive
program I attended in Boston.
Center for
Business, Industry and Labor - Bob
Serben, Ph.D., Director
I would like to
thank you for your introductory
workshop on the practical,
relationship building value of ethical
selling. We whole heartedly
endorse the workshop's central
concepts - the importance of relating
to clients with great respect, and
being seen as trusted advisors - of
which, you are a passionate, energetic
and articulate advocate. As
important as the workshop was, we
greatly appreciated your follow-up
conversations with our
associates. In my opinion, these
sessions were a distinctive feature of
your obvious concern for our
associates as they developed their
understanding and application of your
concepts. In these efforts, you
embodied the workshop's themes of
service and partnership.
Central
Institute for the Deaf - Robin
Feder, Executive Director (Non-Profit)
I
attended the Introductory
Workshop sponsored by the
Ethical Selling Institute.
Your techniques helped the
CID-Central Institute for the
Deaf refine the approach we use
with prospective families and we
are very grateful. We no
longer focus our meetings on
sending their deaf or hard of
hearing child to CID.
Rather, we use questions to
engage our prospective families
and ask the families to share
their experiences with us.
They now tell us their story and
we carefully listen so that we
can truly understand their
concerns. We are then able
to share with them how we might
be able to address topics that
are on their mind. This
approach, along with other
changes in strategies, has
helped increase our enrollment
by 57% since 2004.
Contech
Construction Products - Matt Houser, PE,
Sales Engineer
(Engineering)
As a
Professional Engineer in the Highway
Construction and Land Development
Industry, I struggled with obtaining a
certain level of comfort in my sales
efforts. The gimmicks and tricks I
had learned in other sales training
programs didn't produce sustainable
results and didn't satisfy my desire for
maintaining a positive self-image within
the engineering profession. After
attending the NoHardSell Ethical Selling
Workshop I began to reshape my approach to
my sales process and as a result I felt
more comfortable. As a result,
business has sharply increased and my
professional reputation as a "trusted
consultant" has deepened many on my
business relationships. In many
aspects I have differentiated myself
from competitors because of the skills I
learned in the workshop.
Lighting
Service, Inc. - Kevin Horth
During my sales career (22
years) I have been through many varied
sales training courses, but none of them
have done more to help me refine my sales
skills than the program I attended at the
Ethical Selling Institute with Mr. Fred
Firestone. Every other training
course I have ever taken instructed me to
do things I found uncomfortable in some
way or another, and all of them asked me
to do things that I would perceive as
"SALESPEAK" if I were the customer.
... (The Ethical Selling program) has
helped me keep control of the buyer-seller
conversations in such a way that it seems
very natural and not the least bit pushy
or "salesmanese". ... The training
has taught me how to better convey to
prospects that I have a desire to become a
trusted consultant interested in
developing a long-term relationship with
them that is win-win. Simply put,
Fred Firestone and his Ethical Selling
program are head and shoulders above any
other sales training I have ever taken,
and I highly recommend and endorse this
program.
Missouri
Eagle - Anheuser-Busch Distributor - Mike
Shilharvey, Director of Sales
I have been looking for a better
way to communicate the value added that
our products and services bring to our
customers without being heavy
handed. At the same time I want to
build their trust and confidence when
dealing with our sales team. Your
system was right on target with helping
achieve there goals. It is a system
that will stand on its own but it is also
a system that supplements our own Busch
Selling Skills, and this was very
important to me. I would highly
recommend the "NoHardSell" System to any
and all who would like to pull ahead of
their competitors and take their sales
team to another level.
Royal Banks - Lisa
M. Frick, Vice President
I
find this program to be one of the most down
to earth concepts that uses the tools I have
had all along. This program is more of a
change of focus. Instead of force
feeding clients information in a short, fast,
detail driven conversation, I now find myself
in conversations with potential clients that
parallel conversations that I have had with my
long standing clients looking for guidance
from their "trusted advisor". Instead of
my primary focus being selling products, I now
focus on developing relationships. After
that, everything else just seems to fall into
place. I would be happy to recommend
your training to anyone interested in
Ethically Selling their products and services.
Society for
Marketing Professional Services - Carie A. Dunn,
Chapter President (Architecture,
Engineering, Construction)
Please
accept
this
letter as a follow up to the presentation you
made for the St. Louis Chapter. Your
topic, Differentiate or Diminish: Practical
Value Added Strategies in the Challenging
Economy, was particularly well received.
The following points you made really hit home
with our members (marketers in the AEC
[architecture, engineering & construction]
industry):
- How delivering your "EthicalFactorSM"
(components of which are Trust, Credibility
and Partnership) at crucial interactions is a
vehicle to drive all three key business
development objectives: (1) Retain existing
clients and create promoters; (2) Provide more
products/services to existing clients; as well
as (3) obtain new clients.
- The difference between "Satisfied" and
"Completely Satisfied" clients and the
financial impact of having the latter.
Your
presentation
was fast-paced and engaging. Your overall rating
as a speaker ranked 4.62 on five-point
scale. The following are
some comments received from members:
- "The presenter information was VERY
informative"
- "Speaker was very dynamic"
Stone Carlie
& Company - Mark
Carlie, Member (Accounting)
I want to take
this opportunity to comment on the
consulting services you've provided to Stone
Carlie and their resulting impact.
Give the results, this letter is a pleasure
to write. We engaged your services
beginning in 2006 as a Marketing Strategist,
with the designated goal of transitioning
our tag line, "Going Beyond the Numbers,"
into our differentiator. We believed,
as you do, that our competitive advantage
opportunities had much more to do with our
ability to deliver your "EthicalFactor"
components (trust, credibility and
partnership) at crucial client interactions,
than merely with our ability to deliver
excellent compliance work. The
following are some highlights of your
involvement:
- Developed a Client Commitment
delivery plan with our different
departments.
- Conceptualized and facilitated
opportunities for us to deliver "in-person
impression power," which resulted in
clients and prospects perceiving the value
of our Client Commitment. While the
specific dollars resulting from these
"in-person impression power" opportunities
is proprietary, suffice it to say it
significantly impacted all three of our
marketing objectives to: keep what we
have; secure more services from existing
clients and secure new client
relationships.
- Worked
with me personally in transitioning a
marketing niche into a business unit.
In
sum,
I see you as a trusted resource. Our
objective is to be perceived as the best
value provider. Your guidance has
helped us to make significant inroads in
this direction. If I can be a
reference for you and your EthicalFactor
differentiation system, it would be my
pleasure to do so.
Stone Carlie
& Company - Richard
Kraner, Member (Accounting)
As
a
CPA, I was cautious of anything that had
an aire of salesmanship. However, I
found that the concept focuses more on
listening than selling, more on asking
probing questions than selling, and more
about assessing a prospect's need for your
product or services than selling.
What a novel approach! The use of a
disciplined and methodical approach to
meeting and speaking with potential
clients has broad application for the sale
of all products and services. Your
insights have dramatically changed my
approach to meeting with potential clients
and there is no question that I feel
better prepared, more in tune with a
prospect's needs and better able to
quickly determine whether the services I
provide would be considered to be of value
to the prospect. Thank you for
providing your approach, guidance and
counseling and assisting me in
personalizing this approach to the
services I provide.
Touche Ross - Michael F.
LaPorta, Managing Partner (Accounting)
I
am writing to comment on the recent
marketing programs you did for Touche
Ross. Your work included two focus
groups, one with both our Audit and Tax
management, and a seminar,
"Client-Centered Marketing - Your
Competitive Edge," for our entire
office. I was very satisfied with
what transpired. You conveyed useful
information in a creative and entertaining
format, that succeeded in provoking
thought regarding our relationship to our
clients and our products. In
addition, the fact that you thoroughly
focused on our specific agenda and
developed your programs consistently, lent
to their credibility.
Vistage
International - Allen Hauge, Group Chair (CEO Group)
My members
found the information on sales and customer
service tactics that help not only land new
customers, but enhance and retain the
revenues form current ones very
useful. They especially appreciated
the introduction of the concepts of The
Ethical Factor (trust, credibility,
partnership) and the Core/Outer Core
differentiation model to determine where The
Ethical Factor's use may be most
effective. I received a number of very
positive comments from members after the
meeting.
- "Very high
energy speaker - I like the Socratic
Method and find it to be easier to learn
that way vs. lecture."
- "Really liked
the content. I am a big supporter of
ethical based business practices. You did
a great job of connecting ethics to the
selling process."
- "High energy
- great sense of humor, made me feel
comfortable. Content excellent ...
culture of engagement important to and
intrinsic motivation of employees."
- "Presentation
is actionable. High energy and
passion come through. Back half of
presentation is excellent because it gives
a 'how to' blueprint."
- "Presentation
style was refreshing and engaging.
WOWed Factor was great."
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